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Anyone ever use their garage rafters to pull an engine out?Light motors, like EA81's or a 2.2 EJ.

Mine are 2x6's, in good solid shape.I can stand up there and jump up and down with little effect (i'm 205 lbs.).

Flame On

Sounds feasible to me, at the most, you might want to put some supporting wood of some sort from the floor to the rafters/joists. Just in case. But I'm sure if you can jump up and down on them than it will be fine

Being that an EA81 only weighs about 175 pounds - you shouldn't have an issue. If you can, brace the one you are going to use by running 2x4's from it to the roof at 90 degrees to the roof line. This will allow the load to be distributed to the (much stronger) roof structure.

What I'd do, is anchor the lift point as close to the wall/s as possible. Take one chain, that's over half as wide as the garage, and anchor it at the end of the rafter, as close to the wall as possible. Grab another chain, that's over half as wide as the garage, and anchor it at the other end of the rafter, as close to the opposite wall as possible. Then bring them together, in the middle/over the car, and lift from that point. That way you're putting most of the strain on the walls.

Make sense, or do I suck as much, at explaining stuff, as I think I do?

Picture!(Be kind. I drew it on my iPod touch and I don't have a stylus for a pointer finger. :-p)

My first engineering job was designing engineered building trusses. Those guys are right on it, provide some cross bracing - meaning try and distribute the load across as much of the truss as you can and particularly more than just one truss.

I assume they're 2 foot on center (2 feet apart)? You'll be fine to do this but it does depend a bit on spacing, design, and if there are any other loads. Not that I wonder about once...but you know how it goes..oh i did it once before, i'll do my EJ engine this time, oh my tractor engine needs to come out, yeah the trusses again! and then you have a few hundred pounds of steering racks, axles, and other subaru goodies up there....just be careful and mindful if you start doing it a lot.

The only red flag I'd have is if they are spaced more than 2 feet (typical of agricultural layouts and occassionally others). They're always the ones falling down when we get a couple feet of snow in MD.

Check for knotholes. They can be weak spots. Yes engines are relativly light, but Good Ol' Murphy is always around. When in doubt, just brace the Rafter you are going to use. Carpenters glue does wonders for reinforcing rafters if you marry them..

ive seen it done, but for all the work involved... find a used hoist on craigslist for $50 and call it a day

or borrow one... if you were in portland you could use mine

very good point.

Companies don't make money by building them heavier than the state building codes (based on snow loads, roof loads, hurricane, etc). So, as big as that bottom chord may look (2 by whatever), it's still probably not that much more than absolutely necessary by code. There is sophisticated software that allows companies to build them with as few board feet and cheapest kind of lumber available.

Trusses do fail and it's always because of loads they see or people cutting them "I sure would like to put something right where that 2x4 is.....zzzzzzzzzzz.....crack....."

I understand that it is not ideal, a picker would be much better,and i'll probably go that route, just wanted to consider y'alls thoughts on the subject matter

But, it looks like Connie has actually done it, and that's cool.

not sure one would want to use rafters on the ej22t motor, that sucker is quite heavy.

If it's anything like the N/A 2.2 that Suberdave (or Jibs) and I lifted, it was actually quite light. I could have been running off pure adrenaline, though.I reallllly wanted to see that thing in Jibs' Brat

I assume they're 2 foot on center (2 feet apart)?

They're 2x6, 18 inches apart.

Bucky92, if you have some time in the near future, could you describe how you've done it? I've got a few idears, but i'd be interested in the tried and true (hint hint ... pics )

If you have to buy any of the materials/devices to do the above, it may be simpler, cleaner and cheaper just to rent a cherry picker. IIRC I saw a rental place (on Industrial, sorta behind Hamdogs Bar) that handled that sort of stuff.

I'll got a good one, in my family's down stairs garage my old man used the main beam that runs under the floor to lift and then hold, for a few days, half of an international farm tractor while the transmission was worked on

if you have 2' centers grab a 4 x4 or similar and put it on top of 3 or 4 trusses perpendicular to them , this will distribute the load over them all and not just 1

My garage has 2x3's as the bottom part of the prefab trusses. I toss a 4x4 that goes between 4 of the trusses, put a strap round the middle and use a comealong to lift the motor out. I've used it on EJ22s and DOHC EJ25's so I think you'd be fine if your rafters are 2x6's. Spread the load and make sure the motor doesn't get caught up on the way out, you don't want to be lifting the weight of the car.

I havent read the whole thread, but heres my .02 . I have done this numerous times. However, I would suggest getting a 4x4, and running it thru the rafters, going from one end of the garge to the other if you have a single car garage. If you have a 2 car garage, the same rule applies, but you only have to do it for the garage bay you are in, with a single 2x4 going upright at the end. you already will be distributing the weight out over a large section spanning at least the single bay of the garage. I have used this to pull Dodge 440s, 318s, slant 6, chevy 281, 305, 350, 8.2, 6.0, and many more engines. the joices are holding up nicely. The only thing I did diferently, is that I had a 2 car garage, and I used a 1 inch steel rebarb, that spanned the entire length of the garage, going to the outter walls. This way the weight is far more distributed, and the end walls support any addition weight made missed by the rafters.

just be sure the ceiling joists clear span all the way from outside wall to outside wall. some prefab roof trusses have a splice plate in the center of the bottom chord (that's the member you fasten sheet rock ceiling to). A center splice would be a weak point. and definitely yes on the 4x4 above the joists to spread the load over several joists.

I've seen an old Jeep inline 6 pulled using rafters before (not a light engine). And the garage was in almost ready to fall down shape. (A couple years later we pushed it over with the tractor and built a nice new one)

So I guess if you feel lucky........

An EA81 is not that heavy though.

At the very least just make sure everything is braced like has been said numerous times here.